Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Sugar is sweet or so one thinks but for nine businessmen of the city it turned bitter when they were duped of Rs 2.61 crore by a businessman and his associate from Pune on the pretext of providing sugar to them. The main accused was arrested on Wednesday, while a search is on for his accomplice. The crime branch officials had reached Mumbai after a tip-off but by that time the accused had fled to Delhi and the crime branch followed him and arrested him from Delhi.

According to DCP (crime) Rajesh Tripathi, the owners of Darshan Enterprises, Radhakrishna Traders, Chanchal Traders, Shrikrishna Traders, P Yogesh Chand and Company, Nakoda Sugar Broker, Agam Traders, Mahaveer Kirana and Rajendra Kumar Ajeet Kumar of Bina were duped of Rs 2.61 crore by Mitesh Nahta, the proprietor of M/s Bhuleshwar in Pune and his accomplice Sajan Pachpute, the owner of Sajan Sugar Private Limited.

The complainants had informed the crime branch that the accused had promised to send sugar to them and they had paid the amount as advance amount but the accused didn’t send sugar to them for months. A case under section 409, 420, 34 of the IPC was registered by the crime branch a few months ago and since then a search had been on for the accused. Acting on a tip-off, a crime branch reached Maharashtra for the arrest of Mitesh but he fled from Mumbai to Delhi by a flight.

On the instruction of senior officers, the crime branch also reached Delhi in a flight and managed to arrest Mitesh from Delhi Airport. The accused allegedly confessed his crime and informed the police that he and Sajan had taken money from the traders of the city but they didn’t send sugar to them. The crime branch team is questioning the accused for his accomplice.